Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2009
A subalgebra U of a Lie algebra L over a field F is called modular* in L if U satisfies the dual of the modular identities in the lattice of subalgebras of L. Our aim is the study of the influence of the modular* identities in the structure of the algebra. First we prove that if the modular* conditions are imposed on an ideal of L then every element of L acts as an scalar on this ideal and if they are imposed on a non-ideal subalgebra U of L then the largest ideal of L contained in U also satisfies the modular* identities. We determine Lie algebras having a subalgebra which satisfies both the modular and modular* identities, provided that either L is solvable or char(F)≠ 2,3. As immediate consequences of this result we obtain that the existence of a co-atom satisfying the modular* identities in the lattice L(L) forces that the lattice L(L) is modular and that the modular* identities on any subalgebra U forces that U is quasi-abelian. In the case when L is supersolvable we obtain that the modular* conditions on any non-ideal of L are enough to guarantee that L(L) is modular. For arbitrary fields and any Lie algebra L, we prove that the modular* conditions on every co-atom of the lattice L(L) guarantee that L(L) is modular.